ACB says inqurity into Bingu’s billions did not yield any results

Head of Malawi’s Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Lucas Kondowe has disclosed that the graft-busting body had instituted investigations into the former president Bingu wa Mutharika’s accumulation of at least K61 billion ($85.3 million at current rate), alleged to be stashed in offshore accounts but yielded no results.

Bingu’s wealth faces probe

Late Mutharika’s wealth was established by YMW Property Investment Limited after his death in 2012, and has become talk of scrutiny as Mutharika had declared his wealth to be about K150 million ($209 790) in assets both in Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Mutharika deposited the records with Parliament in August, 2004.

After seven years at the helm of government, he was a proud owner of farms in Kasungu, Salima, Mitundu- Bunda, and the most famed glamorous Ndata Estate. This is apart from real estates in Lilongwe and Blantyre including one brought from former president Bakili Muluzi.

Mutharika reportedly also owned a hotel, a villa and a yatch in Portugal. He was also founder and chairman of the Bineth Trust and the Bingu Silvergrey Foundation. He is also the founder of the Malawi University of Science and Technology on his Ndata estate land.

There have allegations by opposition politicians that funds stashed in offshore accounts belonging to the ex-president – part of it was illegally obtained – and should be brought back and utilised towards recovering the country’s ailing economy.

ACB director general Kondowe said the bureau investigations into Mutharika’s wealth “has not yielded any results requiring following up as of now.”

Kondowe told local press: “The ACB did institute an inquiry into the alleged accumulation of wealth of the former president (Bingu wa Mutharika) through an international inquiry using international requests for information and that inquiry has not yielded any results requiring following up as of now.”

But Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Malawi Parliament has said it would summon ACB officials as well as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) , Bankers Association of Malawi (BAM), office of Director of Asset Declaration, office of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) as well as office of the Ombudsman to help in the authentication of the documents.

The Office of the Speaker of Parliament has formally authorised PAC to take over the preliminary probe efforts into the late Mutharika’s unexplained wealth.

Mzimba West MP Harry Mkandawire (People’s Party-PP) opened a can of worms in Parliament when, rising on a matter of concern, asked government to update Malawians on whether there were efforts to recover the K61 billion the former president is alleged to have stolen and stashed in foreign banks.

PAC Vice-chairperson Kamlepo Kalua said they want to trace the money to the countries where the accounts are held and then probe the source of that money as well as probe into Mutharika’s local business interests.

Malawi Law Society (MLS) has already backed calls for a probe into former president Mutharika’s billions.

John Suzi Banda, MLS President, said that citizens of the southern African country had a right to know if money was looted during Mutharika’s tenure as president from 2004 until his sudden death in 2012.

MP Mkandawire, while presenting copies of a document containing allegations regarding Mutharika’s accumulated wealth, blew the whistle on Portuguese multidisciplinary engineering group Mota Engil that it has been front runners in providing bribes to grease the wheels of government contracts.

He highlighted that some of his money was accumulated through inducements from Mota Engil.

Mota Engil made separate cheque payments to the late president wa Mutharika personal accounts at some commercial banks from as low as K1 million (about $4 000) to as high as K10 million (about $40 000) at a time.

Among others, Mota-Engil made the cheque deposits into the late president’s personal bank account number 0140001886701 at Capital City Branch of Standard Bank.

One cheque worth K10 million was deposited into Mutharika’s Standard Bank account number 0140001886701 on March 3 2010.

On the deposit slip, the depositor only identified himself as Mota-Engil, but the signature is the same as the one on an FMB cheque number 9480 belonging to Mota-Engil. The other signature on the three cheques is for managing director Antonmarco Zorzi.

The other two cheques are numbered 12570 (worth K2.5 million) and 12571 (worth K1 million). These cheques were written on March 24 2011.

The other two cheques are numbered 12570 (worth K2.5 million) and 12571 (worth K1 million). These cheques were written on March 24 2011.

Justice Minister Samuel Tembenu claimed that no evidence of offshore accounts existed, adding that the accusations should be dismissed.

The ruling DPP has since failed to disclosed how much the late president managed to accumulate while in office.

NOTHING CAN ACB DO AS OF NOW DPP IS ON THE SEAT BUT IF PITA CAN DIE OVERSADEN ALL THE THE WORTH OF BINGU SHUD BE TAKEN TU GOVERNMENT ON THIS NO DISCUSION. BINGU STEALED MORE FROM GOVERNMENT THESE ARE TAXES OF THE POOR.

Hahahahaha. What do you really expect ACB to prosecute their own. If you really want an example come to SA and hear how the public protector in the name of Thuli Madonsela how she has made JZ to account. Every country has its fair share of problems but when those in office rise to do their jobs properly public trust is restored. It’s laughable to hear billions cannot be traced. It’s because we have officials that are patriotic to the ruling party not serving people. We have a long way to go as a nation if we operate this way.

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IF NOW, A WASTE OF TIME

The time is just too short, for any organisation to conduct a sensible investigation
. . . Everybody knows how inefficent the ACB operates. Now, can we be cheated that the ACB has suddenly become so efficient that they could conduct this investigation in less than a month?
. . . Besides the well-documented inefficiency of the ACB, the investigation is too complex to be conducted in such a short period of time, coz it would involve buying-in the cooporation of other countries and international organisations, and such a task takes time, as its outside ACB’s control.
. . . in short, ACB did not at all conduct the investigation.
. . . If given a benefit of a doubt, then the investigations were not thorough.
. . . “Kukana nsalu yaakulu nkuviika” is what ACB has done.
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Besides the short-time, the ACB is not the right organisation to conduct this investigation.
. . . coz its Head is appointed by APM (a brother to Bingu – blood is thicker than water); thus, not independent.
. . . Also, the Parliament of monkeys is just too naive to suppose that summoning heads of the ACB, RBM, the DPP e.tc would help matters. These heads are technically APM’s mouthpieces hence not autonomous.
. . . Only a reputable international organisation can conduct a sensible investigation on this. Sadly, even if this organisation finds that Bingu stole our monies (which is very likely); nothing will happen, as long as APM is president, for obvious reasons.

In short, this investigation is simply a masquerade, hence complete waste of time and money, if done now.
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Why did Joyce Banda, MCP, UDF and others not investigate this during the nearly 2 years that she was at the helm of power? Joyce Banda government was a golden opportunity to investigate and establish the truth regarding the Bingu billions, Chasowa case, July 20 deaths in mzuzu etc. Why were civil society organizations, law society silent during this period? How do these (MCP, UDF, PP) expect the alleged thieves (DPP) to investigate themselves? The questions I raise here should jolt the brain of every right and fair-minded person into realizing that the calls to investigate these cases will never see the light of day even if UDF or MCP came back to power.